Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Texas Rangers believe they have a good one in left handed pitching prospect Martin Perez. Baseball America has Perez as the 17th best prospect in all of baseball.

He just turned 19 last month and he's currently playing for the AA Minor League affiliate of the Rangers. The stats so far this season: 37.2 IP 5-5 5.26 ERA 39 SO. Baseball America listed his best attribute as his curveball. Collectors are lining up to get a shot at his 2010 Bowman Chrome Superfractor 1/1 Autograph currently on eBay.

Friday, May 28, 2010

High priced early 1990's baseball cards are sometimes hard to come by, but slap a PSA 10 on one and you might get somewhere. A regular 1993 Topps Micro Derek Jeter Rookie Card can be had for less then $12. But this PSA 10 is already over $400.00.

One of the reasons for the price premium is that according to the seller of the card - only 4 1993 Derek Jeter Mini/Micro RC's have been graded PSA 10. Centering is usually the reason why these cards don't grade well. If you have one of these cards, be sure to really look at it hard before sending the card in to be graded. If you don't get a PSA 10 - you will come out on the short end if you try and sell:

1993 Topps Micro Derek Jeter PSA 8
Sold For: $7.99
May 26, 2010

The PSA 10 Jeter Micro RC currently for sale ends tonight and I am curious to see if there is any late movement on the card. The seller previously had the card for sale for a very ambitious buy it now price of $2,899.00.

J.J. Hoover is a minor league pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. He was a 10th round draft choice in the 2008 MLB Draft. I've never seen the kid pitch, and so far he has posted very modest statistics while playing at four lower levels of the Braves farm system. He is currently pitching in A+ ball (Myrtle Beach), where this season he is 1-3 with a 4.18 ERA with 34 SO in 47.1 IP. Obviously he doesn't have 'blow them away stuff' but it looks like his control is above average because his career SO/BB ratio is 4.32 in about 190 IP.

The Braves have been able to develop pitchers in the past who didn't have a dominant fastball, so J.J. Hoover at least has a shot at success. We'll keep an eye on this card to see where the final price ends.

It's rare to see any card from the 1950's graded so high, let alone a sought after rookie card. This 1959 Topps Bob Gibson Rookie hit eBay three days ago and already has a price tag of over $2,300.00. Beckett's Annual Baseball Guide priced this card in the $175.00 - $300.00 range, so you can see what a high grade can do to the price. This has got to be the only, or one of only a handful, PSA 9 Bob Gibson Rookie Cards in existence.

Panini slipped in some short print cards in their debut 2010 Football set - Panini Prestige. No official short print checklist from the company has been made available, but some of the Sp's are obvious, including this Tim Tebow Draft Sp Rookie Card.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Boston Celtics are hitting their stride just at the right time in large part due to the play of point guard Rajon Rondo.

Collectors are starting to take notice, as several of Rondo's rookie cards and high end autograph/memorabilia cards are some of the most watched basketball cards currently on eBay. One of the better game used Rajon Rondo card up for sale right now is this 2009/10 Panini Timeless Treasures Prime 'Celtics Clover' Logo Patch 1/1.

Scheduled release date for 2010 Topps Triple Threads Baseball is set for the week off 8/23/2010. The product will have a similar feel and configuration with past Triple Threads releases, but with a few new added twists.

Book cards play a big role in 2010 Topps Triple Threads and one of the new inserts available are the high end Legends Dual 'Cut Above" Relics 1/1 Cards (see Ruth/Cobb below). Many of the new cards that Topps hyped on their sell sheet for 2010 Topps Triple Threads were 1/1 cards, which makes for a great looking sell sheet, but the odds are steep to actually pull one from this expensive SRP product. I would have liked to see them offer more high end autograph/game used memorabilia cards that weren't all 1/1 cards.

Topps had some sort of deal worked out with the MLB, because they were able to secure almost every 2009 All-Star Jersey. Were these game used? Hmmmm, I'm thinking most or many of these were from the "pre-game" events such as the Home Run Derby, where the players are on the field in uniform, even if they are not competing in the event. I might have missed it, but I didn't see anything from Topps that said the All-Star cards in 2010 Triple Threads were actually 'game used'.

It should come as no surprise that one of the most popular baseball cards currently on eBay is this 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospect Jose Iglesias Superfractor Autograph 1/1 #BCP108. The card features an on-card autograph and is serial numbered 1/1 on the back off the card. Will it hit $1,000.00 (Yep!)?

So, here are the top 5 most watched 2010 Bowman Baseball cards currently on eBay. Clearly, sellers are making out great! Stephen Strasburg will probably be a very good pitcher, but keep in mind the Nationals are awful, and he WILL struggle at some point for a few starts in his career. The first time he comes up to the MLB and gets rocked for 5 runs in 3 innings. That's when you want to buy.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Stagg High School Alum, and Oakland A's pitcher Dallas Braden continued his hot streak by pitching a perfect game today against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Collectors were already taking notice of the Stockton, California native who had a heated exchange on and off the field with Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez recently. I grew up in Stockton and am only a few months older then Braden. Good to see a local kid put his name on the map. Braden has held a Thanksgiving dinner for hundreds of under-privileged families in Stockton the last two years; he is truly a good guy.

Go get some rookie cards of Dallas Braden. He is very competitive, as seen with the A-Rod incident, but he is a real humble and smart kid off the baseball diamond as well.

Panini has announced details of 09-10 Panini Hall of Fame Basketball which is set to hit collectors on: July 28, 2010. This is another one-pack product similar to 09/10 Timeless Treasures and 09/10 Court Kings - where you get 11 Cards per $100 pack. There will be 2 Autograph Cards and 1 Memorabilia Card per pack.

Look for actual 1992 USA Olympic Dream Team game used jersey cards & Marks of Fame USA Autograph cards #/49. Each 15 box case will deliver a HOF Cut Signature from one of 16 NBA Hall of Fame members including George Mikan.

There has been a lot of 1935 National Chicle Football activity on eBay lately, and a true gem has made it's way to auction this week.

It's rare to see the 1935 Chicle cards in good condition, so it's no wonder why this 1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski graded PSA 5 has gotten a lot of attention so far. The Nagurski card hit eBay 4 days ago and already has 97 watchers and a price tag of $4,050.00 on 11 bids.

Topps will continue it's tradition of releasing a complete factory set of Topps Series 1 and 2 later this year. This years factory set will have 660 cards, plus a 5 card pack of numbered red parallel cards will be included in the regular factory set.

In addition, Topps has announced the release of 3 'Team Edition' factory sets for the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and the Philadelphia Phillies. The team edition factory sets will include a 5 card insert set highlighting the teams best players.

In March, we reported on a 2006 Jeremy Hellickson Superfractor 1/1 (no autograph) that sold for $1,313.88. One can expect that the Alex Gordon card currently on eBay will command more then that (Barely!). Go to the auction page and read the questions the seller from Taiwan has received. He's got people willing to spend big money to get this card.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

A spectacular vintage baseball set is up for sale on eBay, a complete set of 1967 Topps Baseball with 117 of the cards graded by PSA all grade 7 or higher. In all, there are 609 cards in the 1967 Topps Baseball Set.

Some of the top graded names in the auction are PSA 8: Willie Mays #200, Willie McCovey #480, PSA 7: Mickey Mantle #150, Bob Gibson #210, Pete Rose #430, and Brooks Robinson #600. For a complete list of the graded cards, as well as pictures of every card be sure to visit the auction page.